Audubon Aquarium of the Americas

Daphne was the only kid in our group
that wanted to pet the sting rays.

Tyler ran up the back of the oyster like it was
the warped wall on American Ninja Warrior

Albino alligator

New Orleans City Park

Our climbers in action

Brad with Penelope (aka Penny)

Aunt 'Nee loves to slide

So many live oak trees to check out

Hazel (age 3) and Penelope (7 months)



Notice Daphne's big wind up to throw bread to the ducks.

When Daphne stepped to throw she stepped right into the pond
and was covered in water and pond scum up to her waist!



Yuck! At least we had some spare pants in the
car and Daphne's Crocs dried out super fast.

Brad and Tyler super climbers

Happy baby!

Eaten by a whale in Storyland

Cinderella's pumpkin carriage

Eating beignets was at the top of Tyler's New Orleans to-do list.

 

College

Last week when Daphne was on vacation, her good buddy Holden from daycare told his mom, "Daphne hasn't been coming to school. I think she went to college."

Spring Break Road Trip

Tyler has been on spring break this past week and we took a fun road trip to New Orleans with a quick stop in Houston on the way back. We ended up leaving Austin a day later than planned because Tyler had a stomach bug but he recovered and we had a great stay with Brad, Megan, Hazel, and Penelope in New Orleans. The trip back was a first for us because I-10 was closed in both directions at the Texas-Louisiana state line because of the flooding from the Sabine River. We took a several hour detour because all crossings of the Sabine River, which runs north-south and forms the border, were flooded for 70 miles. For comparison, we made it from Austin to New Orleans in 9 hours but it took us 8-1/2 hours to drive from New Orleans to Houston via the detour we took around the I-10 closure. We stayed one night in Houston at my dad's and then spent yesterday at the zoo with Bryce and his boys before driving back to Austin. The kids did pretty well in the car, mostly because of their tablets. They did ask us repeatedly where we were and how much longer. When we left Houston for Austin, Tyler asked us how long the drive would take. He actually responded, "That's not too bad" when we told him it was a 3-hour drive. More photos and blog entries to come...

 

The official I-10 detour takes drivers up I-49 all the way to Shreveport and then west on I-20. We were able to figure out that the north end of the Sabine River was passable because it is controlled by a dam at the south side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Kudos to Louisiana's 511 traveler information website (http://www.511la.org/) for accurate road conditions.

 

Our Little Star

A few weeks ago we went to a star gazing festival and I just came across a few photos on my phone. Daphne was more than gung ho to don the star costume at one of the booths and pose with the storm trooper. We were surprised Tyler didn't want a photo since he loves Star Wars so much.

The storm trooper is cool, whereas Daphne
flashing the hook 'em horns is not so cool!

First Mani-Pedi

I was in need (okay, desire) of a pedicure so I took Daphne to the salon with me for her first mani-pedi. They soaked her feet a little and they painted her fingernails and toenails. Daphne was quite excited by the hot pink sparkly nail polish she picked out.

Fort

Michael and Tyler strung up a fort in Tyler's room. I made Tyler army crawl underneath it to bring me his dirty laundry.